perf(Text): remove unnecessary useRef and useImperativeHandle hooks

[hectahertz]

Closes #

Text had useRef + useRefObjectAsForwardedRef (wrapping useImperativeHandle) just to forward a ref that was never read internally. Removed both hooks and passed the forwarded ref directly to the element.

	Before	After
useRef	1	0
useImperativeHandle (via useRefObjectAsForwardedRef)	1	0
Total hooks per render	2	0

Text is one of the most frequently rendered Primer components. On a typical page with 50-100 Text instances, this eliminates ✨ 100-200 hook calls per render cycle ✨.

Changelog

New

N/A

Changed

• Text now passes the forwarded ref directly to the element instead of through useRef + useImperativeHandle

Removed

N/A

Rollout strategy

• Patch release
• Minor release
• Major release; if selected, include a written rollout or migration plan
• None; if selected, include a brief description as to why

Testing & Reviewing

1. Render <Text ref={myRef}>Hello</Text> and verify myRef.current points to the DOM span
2. Verify polymorphic as prop still works: <Text as="p" ref={myRef}>Hello</Text>
3. Verify size and weight props still apply data attributes

Merge checklist

• Added/updated tests
• Added/updated documentation
• Added/updated previews (Storybook)
• Changes are SSR compatible
• Tested in Chrome
• Tested in Firefox
• Tested in Safari
• Tested in Edge
• (GitHub staff only) Integration tests pass at github/github

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 2f71900

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
@primer/react	Patch

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[github-actions]

👋 Hi, this pull request contains changes to the source code that github/github-ui depends on. If you are GitHub staff, test these changes with github/github-ui using the integration workflow. Or, apply the integration-tests: skipped manually label to skip these checks.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR optimizes the Text component in @primer/react by removing internal ref plumbing (useRef + useImperativeHandle) and forwarding the received ref directly to the rendered element, reducing per-render hook usage for a frequently-rendered component.

Changes:

• Remove useRef/useRefObjectAsForwardedRef from Text and attach the forwarded ref directly to the polymorphic element.
• Add a patch changeset documenting the performance-focused change.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
packages/react/src/Text/Text.tsx	Removes internal ref hooks and forwards ref directly to the rendered element.
.changeset/text-remove-hooks.md	Patch changeset entry describing the perf change.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

packages/react/src/Text/Text.tsx:22

• Ref-forwarding behavior changed (ref now passed directly to the rendered element), but the existing Text unit tests don’t assert ref behavior. Add a test that renders (and ideally as well) and verifies ref.current points at the underlying DOM element to prevent regressions.

    <Component className={clsx(className, classes.Text)} data-size={size} data-weight={weight} {...rest} ref={ref} />

[primer-integration]

👋 Hi from github/github-ui! Your integration PR is ready: https://github.com/github/github-ui/pull/14068

[primer-integration]

Integration test results from github/github-ui:

  CI Failed
  VRT Waiting
  Projects Passed

CI check runs linting, type checking, and unit tests. Check the workflow logs for specific failures.

Need help? If you believe this failure is unrelated to your changes, please reach out to the Primer team for assistance.